-
On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Royal Governor/General Thomas Gage summoned the Selectmen of Boston to inform them that new town meetings could not be held because they were prohibited by the Massachusetts Government Act, unless the Selectmen first obtained authorization from him. Gage later wrote that I assembled the Select Men in…
-
On this day 250 years ago, Colonel Andrew Lewis met in a council of war at his home Richfield (in present day Salem, Virginia) with Colonels William Christian, William Fleming and William Preston. The council was planning the march of the Fincastle, Botetourt, Augusta and Bedford County militias to the Ohio River to attack the…
-
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Purdie & Dixon’s Virginia Gazette published the “Association” pledging to stop imports from Britain, as well as the Instructions to the delegates to the Continental Congress, that had been adopted by the Virginia Convention in the preceding week. The 7th and 8th Resolutions of the Association authorized…
-
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution, Governor Joseph Wanton of Rhode Island issued written instructions to the two delegates that “the General Assembly of the Colony . . . nominated and appointed . . . to represent the people of this Colony in general congress of representatives from this and the other…
-
On this day 250 years ago, in Worcester, Massachusetts a meeting of the Committee of Correspondence of Worcester County passed a resolution in response to the Massachusetts Government Act which had revoked the right granted in the Massachusetts Charter for the colonists to elect their own representatives and judges. The Worcester Committee resolved “that an…
-
On this day 250 years ago the Committee of Safety of Rowan County, met in Salisbury, North Carolina, to adopt the Rowan Resolves. The Rowan Resolves were the first county resolutions adopted in North Carolina and comprised 17 resolutions similar to those adopted by counties in Virginia and the other colonies including: RESOLVED, That the…
-
On this day 250 years ago in Ohio, 400 frontier militia under the command of Major Angus MacDonald were marching back to Fort Fincastle, Virginia (now Wheeling, West Virginia) after destroying the Shawnee village of Wakatomika and nearby Shawnee and Mingo villages. MacDonald’s expedition spared nearby Delaware villages because the Delaware were not at war…
-
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first Virginia Convention concluded. Among other actions, the Virginia Convention elected Peyton Randolph, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton as delegates to the First Continental Congress to be held the following month in Philadelphia. The Virginia Convention…
-
On this day 250 years ago George Washington’s close friend Bryan Fairfax wrote to Washington expressing concern that the Fairfax Resolves were too radical. Fairfax tried to remain neutral during the Revolution and refused to pledge loyalty to either the Patriots or the British, but he remained friends with Washington until Washington’s death. Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%225%20August%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=5&sr=
-
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Clementina Rind reported in her Virginia Gazette on additional Resolutions adopted by Virginia Counties: “The Northumberland, Orange, King George, Amelia, Frederick, Lancaster, Mecklenberg, Lunenberg, Accomack, King William, Warwick, and a few other resolves, we have received, but couldn’t possibly insert them.” Source: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/672b0c83-5d0c-4bed-85f0-57599c7a60b1/content Glanville at pp. 73-75;…